This invention relates to methods and apparatus for winding stators such as electric motor stators.
Some modern electric motors require the largest possible coils to be wound on the poles of the stator. On the other hand, increasing the width of the poles to support the extra coil turns as they are being applied may have a deleterious effect on the efficiency of the resulting motor.
To increase the number of coil turns without increasing the width of the stator poles it has been proposed to form the coils off the stator, to lace the coils so that their turns remain together, and to then mount each coil on a stator pole which is part of a separate portion of a stator. The separate stator portions are then welded together to make a finished stator. This solution to the problem of producing larger stator coils is difficult, cumbersome, and costly, and it would be much better to be able to wind the coils directly on a complete stator body as is typically done for stators having poles which can readily support all the turns of the coils as they are wound.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for winding coils on stator poles having more turns than the pole itself can support during winding.